The Touch
by withoutapast
Summary: One-shot: Altered scenes between Sarah and Kyle beginning with their time-jump and ending in the hospital. Fluff.


"You have to trust me!" Kyle's voice was insistent, bordering on desperate.

"Why should I?" She did trust him—implicitly, but not completely, at least not yet. The doubt was drawn in her forehead.

Kyle inched forward until he could feel the pressure of the muzzle of her gun pressing against his chest. Although the bullet was aimed at _his_ heart, it was _her_ breath that caught in her throat. The next thing she knew her hand was cupped in his and he was tracing his index finger down her palm saying the last words her father had ever spoken to her.

"How do you know that?" Her words came out in a breathy, haunted whisper.

"From memories I shouldn't have." His expression softened as she relaxed into him, physically relenting. He followed her lead to the locker room. Once inside he couldn't keep his mind's eye from traveling to other side of the lockers where Sarah was undressing. She was a goddess, a mythological being he had grown up worshiping, and now here she was in the flesh, no longer fantasy, but part of his reality. He was captivated. And God he wanted her.

On the other side, Sarah was having her own internal battle. The man just a few feet from her was the man she was meant to love. He was her destiny. But she wasn't sure she could do it, knowing how their story ended. She couldn't even bring herself to tell him. She felt like such a liar. It wasn't fair to him. But every time she looked at him she felt a little more drawn in. At first it had felt like a fact—artificial and distant. She had to like him because she was supposed to. But now she wasn't thinking about supposed to, she was thinking about the feel of the pads of his fingers on her skin, the broadness of his shoulders, the shape of his chin, the glow of his eyes. Damn.

"Have you mated yet?" Pops asked when Sarah emerged with Kyle in tow.

Her eyebrows shot to her hairline and her color plunged to polar ice.

"Excuse me?" Kyle exclaimed from over her shoulder.

Sarah furiously shook her head at Pops, who turned his attention to the console as she brushed by him and continued up to the platform. As she reached it, Kyle caught up to her, put his hands on her shoulders, and turned her to face him.

"Hey, look at me." She forced herself to meet his gaze. "What was he talking about?"

She couldn't maintain eye contact and lie. "I don't know."

"You're lying. What aren't you telling me?"

"Can we not do this now?"

Kyle could feel himself growing angry. He was risking everything to protect this woman and she was keeping things from him. "We're about to time jump together. I think now is the perfect time."

"Please not now."

It was the pleading in her eyes not her voice that persuaded him to give in. "If not now, then when?"

"When we get to the other side."

"Then you'll tell me what you know."

She nodded. "I promise."

"Okay then." He stepped in closer and carefully slid her jacket from her shoulders. Her head dropped in embarrassment as he stepped out of his pants.

"What will it feel like?"

Even though she wasn't being upfront with him, he would pay her that courtesy. "It's going to hurt."

As the machine powered up, its forces pushed her against him and sure enough Kyle wasn't lying. It hurt. She couldn't help herself; she grabbed onto him and curled into his chest. He welcomed and returned the embrace, enfolding her to him.

When they landed in 2017, she was still clinging to him and he to her. She felt safe wrapped in his arms and she was, if only from the traffic, not the cops who arrested them minutes later.

Sitting in the back of the police van, Kyle prompted, "Well?"

"Well, what?"

"You have some explaining to do, remember?"

"Here?" Sarah glanced over her shoulder to the front of the vehicle.

"It seems like we're not going anywhere for a while. And you've already made me wait for more than 2 decades," he quipped.

Sarah sighed and then pulled the blanket more securely around her, glancing at Kyle's bare chest and blushing, which did not go unnoticed. "You're here to protect me."

"Yes," Kyle nodded. "I know that."

"You came back in time to protect me because I'm John's mother, or will be, anyway."

"Yes, I know that, too."

"But you came back for more than that."

"What's more?"

"You aren't just here to protect me. You're here to…" Her entire face burned scarlet.

"Sarah?"

"God, I don't know how to tell you this. There's no easy way." Sarah paused in an effort to muster her courage. "I'm John's mother and you're John's father." Kyle was speechless. "We're supposed to fall in love and then you father John and then you…" She buried her face in her hands. "I'm so sorry."

"I'm John's father?! All this time he's been like a father to me. I just can't believe…wait, what are you sorry for?"

"You die."

Kyle tilted his head.

"After you father John, you die just like everyone else who has ever loved me. So don't fall in love with me."

Kyle moved down the seat closer to her. "No. It doesn't have to end like that, not in this timeline. Besides I couldn't stop myself from falling in love with you. I've been doing it since before I ever even met you." Kyle reached out and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and then let his fingers slide down her jaw line. "That's why I volunteered for this. All of John's stories about you. The photograph of you he gave me. I've been dreaming of you for so long." His thumb traveled across her lower lip. "You are so beautiful."

The slamming of the van's doors broke them apart. It was Kyle's turn to blush as he dropped his hand. "Sorry, I shouldn't have…" Sarah shook her head and smiled. "You know, that's the one thing I remember thinking the first time we met, that is, in this timeline, when you drew a straight line down my hand and said those words to me. All I could think was how beautiful you were."

At the hospital, finally dressed, in scrubs of course, but nevertheless clothed, Sarah declined an anesthetic as a nurse stapled the cut on her shoulder.

"Just do what she wants, it's easier." Sarah narrowed her eyes at Kyle who just chuckled in response. Once the nurse finished, Kyle moved to sit on the bed next to Sarah. She raised her eyebrows in question and he simply scooted closer so that their bodies were in contact from shoulder to hip to heel. "I wanted to be closer to you," he whispered, his mouth on her ear, as he leaned over her. "You feel good." Sarah's breaths had grown shallow, her mouth dry, and her brain slow. Kyle pressed his lips to her temple. Then to the side of her cheek. Then below her ear.

When he pulled back to observe her reaction, her eyes were lidded but she shook her head.

"What?"

"Don't stop," she released a pant-like breath. She turned her face toward his and then proceeded to climb into his lap. Kyle's features registered surprise. She hooked her cuffed hands around his neck and pressed her lips firmly to his mouth. "Just do what I want, it's easier." A throaty laugh erupted from deep within his chest, shaking them both. He slid backward onto the bed with Sarah still straddling his hips. Her fingers explored his hair, while her tongue explored his mouth. Kyle grunted in frustration at how the cuffs limited his own hands' ability to roam her body, but the downward trajectory of her lips calmed him as much as it excited him. She planted butterfly kisses down his chest and torso, over his abs.

"Separate the prisoners!" An officer ordered as he swung the door open.

Sarah and Kyle sat up, startled and then horrified as realization set in. Sarah was dragged off of Kyle and transferred to the other bed, refusing to look at anyone but him. Meanwhile Kyle was doing his best to hide the physical evidence of his enjoyment of what he and Sarah had been doing. Sarah smiled at the blush creeping down his neck and his hesitation to meet her eyes.

The door swung open again. "You did not finish mating?" Pops asked before promptly taking down the small contingent of cops and freeing Sarah and Kyle of their bonds.

"Pops!?"

"You're late." Kyle deadpanned.

"I know."

"Where were you? And, oh my God, stop saying 'mate'," Sarah added.

"Stuck in traffic. Do you want to finish mating before we leave? There are many rooms with beds in this building."

"Was that a joke?" Kyle asked.

"I think it was," Sarah looked aghast. Kyle reached for her hand as they fled the hospital. "I don't need help," she said, pulling it from his grasp.

"Me taking your hand doesn't mean you do." Kyle said, reaching for her hand again. "I just want to hold you." This time she let him grab it.


End file.
